Daniel Inouye

Daniel Ken Inouye
United States Senator from Hawaii
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 1963 Serving with Daniel Akaka
Preceded by	Oren E. Long
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Hawaii's At-large district
In office August 21, 1959 – January 3, 1963
Preceded by	First congressman (statehood)
Succeeded by	Thomas Ponce Gill
Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
In office January 3, 1975 – January 3, 1979
Preceded by	Committee created
Succeeded by	Birch Bayh
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
In office January 3, 1987 – January 3, 1995
Preceded by	Mark Andrews
Succeeded by	John McCain
In office January 3 – January 20, 2001
Preceded by	Ben Nighthorse Campbell
Succeeded by	Ben Nighthorse Campbell
In office June 6, 2001 – January 3, 2003
Preceded by	Ben Nighthorse Campbell
Succeeded by	Ben Nighthorse Campbell
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
In office January 3, 2007 – January 3, 2009
Preceded by	Ted Stevens
Succeeded by	Jay Rockefeller
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2009
Preceded by	Robert Byrd
Personal details
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Margaret Shinobu Awamura (1949 - 2006) (her death) Irene Hirano (2008-present)
Residence	Honolulu, Hawaii
Alma mater	University of Hawaii at Manoa, George Washington University
Occupation	attorney
Awards	Medal of Honor Bronze Star Purple Heart
Website	Senator Daniel K. Inouye
Military service
Allegiance	United States of America
Branch/service	United States Army
Years of service	1943-1947
Rank	Captain
Unit	442nd Regimental Combat Team
Battles/wars	World War II

Daniel Ken Inouye (井上 建, Inoue Ken) born September 7, 1924 is an American politician who currently serves as the senior United States Senator from Hawaii. He has been a U.S. Senator since 1963, and is currently the third-most-senior member after fellow Democrats Robert Byrd and Ted Kennedy. He has continuously represented Hawaii in the U.S. Congress since it achieved statehood in 1959, serving as Hawaii's first U.S. Representative and later a U.S. Senator. Inouye was the first Japanese-American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives and later the first in the U.S. Senate. He is the third oldest U.S. Senator after Robert Byrd and Frank Lautenberg. He is also a recipient of the Medal of Honor.

Personal history

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Inouye is a Nisei (second-generation) Japanese-American and a son of Kame Imanaga and Hyotaro Inouye. He grew up in the Bingham Tract, a Chinese-American enclave within the predominantly Japanese-American community of Mo'ili'ili in Honolulu.

He was at the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941 as a medical volunteer.

Congressional Medal of Honor

In 1943, when the U.S. Army dropped its ban on Japanese-Americans, Inouye curtailed his premedical studies at the University of Hawaii and enlisted in the Army. He was assigned to the Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which became the most-highly decorated unit in the history of the Army. During the World War II campaign in Europe he received the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, and the Distinguished Service Cross, which was later upgraded to the Medal of Honor.

Inouye was promoted to the rank of sergeant within his first year, and he was given the role of platoon leader. He served in Italy in 1944 during the Rome-Arno Campaign before he was shifted to the Vosges Mountains region of France, where he spent two weeks searching for the Lost Battalion, a Texas battalion that was surrounded by German forces. He was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant for his actions there. He was nearly killed in an assault in Italy in 1945, which saw Inouye survive a bullet wound to the abdomen and a point-blank attack by a German grenade, during a misson where Inouye advanced alone toward a German gun post to protect his surrounded men.

442nd Regimental Combat Team coat of arms

While recovering from WWII wounds in Percy Jones Army Hospital, Inouye met future Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole, then a fellow patient. Dole mentioned to Inouye that after the war he planned to go to Congress; Inouye beat him there by a few years. Despite being members of different political parties, the two remain lifelong friends. In 2003, the hospital was renamed the Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Center in honor of the two WWII veterans and another U.S. Senator and fellow WWII veteran who had stayed in the hospital, Philip Hart.

His wife of fifty-seven years, Maggie, died on March 13, 2006. On May 24, 2008, he married Irene Hirano in a private ceremony in Beverly Hills, California. Ms. Hirano is president and chief executive officer of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, California. According to the Honolulu Advertiser she is 24 years' Inouye's junior.

In February 2009, a bill was filed in the Philippine House of Representatives by Rep. Antonio Diaz seeking to confer honorary Filipino citizenship on Inouye, Senators Ted Stevens and Daniel Akaka and Representative Bob Filner, for their role in securing the passage of benefits for Filipino World War II veterans.

Congressional career

Although he lost his right arm in WWII, Inouye remained in the military until 1947 and was discharged with the rank of captain. Due to the loss of his arm, he abandoned his plans to become a surgeon and returned to college to study political science under the GI Bill. He graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1950 with a B.A. in political science. He earned his J.D. from The George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. in 1953 and was elected into the Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity. Soon afterward he was elected to the territorial legislature, of which he was a member until shortly before Hawaii achieved statehood in 1959. He won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives as Hawaii's first full member, and took office on August 21, 1959, the same date Hawaii became a state; he was reelected in 1960.

In 1962 Inouye was elected to the U.S. Senate, succeeding fellow Democrat Oren E. Long. He is currently serving his seventh- consecutive six-year term, having most recently run against Republican candidate Campbell Cavasso in 2004. He delivered the keynote address at the turbulent 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. and gained national attention for his service on the U.S. Senate Watergate Committee. He was chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence from 1975 until 1979, and chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs from 1987 until 1995 and from 2001 until 2003. Inouye was also involved in the Iran-Contra investigations of the 1980s, chairing a special committee from 1987 until 1989.

In 2000, Inouye was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun by the Emperor of Japan in recognition of his long and distinguished career in public service.

Gang of 14

Main article: Gang of 14

On May 23, 2005, Inouye was a member of a bipartisan group of fourteen moderate senators, known as the Gang of 14, to forge a compromise on the Democrats' use of the judicial filibuster, thus blocking the Republican leadership's attempt to implement the "nuclear option", a means of forcibly ending a filibuster. Under the agreement, the Democrats would retain the power to filibuster a Bush judicial nominee only in an "extraordinary circumstance", and the three-most-conservative Bush appellate-court nominees (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor) would receive a vote by the full U.S. Senate.

Ted Stevens

On November 1, 2008, Inouye defended his colleague and friend Senator Ted Stevens, a Republican, who was convicted in federal court in Washington, D.C., of seven felony corruption charges:

As the Senate has done in every other instance in its long 220-year history, I am absolutely confident that Ted Stevens will be sworn into the Senate while he appeals this unjust verdict, I am certain that this decision in Washington, D.C., will be overturned on appeal.

His statement prompted the Democratic U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to respond:

While I respect the opinion of Senator Daniel Inouye, the reality is that a convicted felon is not going to be able to serve in the United States Senate. And as precedent shows us, Senator Stevens will face an ethics committee investigation and expulsion, regardless of his appeals process.

This is not a partisan issue and it is unfortunate that Senator Stevens has used his long time friendship with Senator Inouye for partisan political gain.

Inouye became the third-eldest U.S. Senator after Stevens' term ended in 2009 after losing his re-election bid due in part to the conviction. A federal judge later overturned the conviction and prompted an investigation of the prosecutors due to irregularities during the trial.

Committee assignments

• Committee on Appropriations (Chairman)
  • Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on Defense (Chairman)
  • Subcommittee on Homeland Security
  • Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
• Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
  • Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security
  • Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet
  • Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard
  • Subcommittee on Science and Space
  • Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security
• Committee on Indian Affairs
• Committee on Rules and Administration

Party leadership

• Senate Democratic Steering and Coordination Committee

Electoral history

Main article: Electoral history of Daniel Inouye

See also

• List of Medal of Honor recipients
• List of Medal of Honor recipients for World War II
• Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, housed in the Daniel K. Inouye Building

External links

• United States Senator Daniel Inouye official Senate site

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Profile at Vote Smart
• Guantanamo Bay: A First-Hand View of Camp X-Ray - Press Briefing February 1, 2002
• 21 Asian American World War II Vets to Get Medal of Honor May 19, 2000